Barbaric Tribes of Ancient Times

Over the centuries sence the dawn of time there has always been tribes of war like people that some refer to as barbarians. I would like to talk a little bit about some of these Germanic tribes such as the Lombards, Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Vandals, and the Franks.

First off we will talk about the Lombard’s. The word Lombard coming from the word Langobards, refers to their long beards. The Lombard’s are one of the many Germanic tribes that settled in Europe. The Lombard’s started off in southern Sweden and over time migrated there way down into Italy. They settled in modern day Hungary and Eastern Austria.

For centuries the territory that is modern Austria was the border between Roman and Germanic culture. In 568 Alboin lead the invasion into Italy were they set up there own kingdom and later worked their way down into southern Italy. Authari is the next king to come into power. He was elected to this position to try to strengthen the Lombards hold on Europe from the Franks, the Byzantine Empire and the popes of that time.

The height of the Lomardian Kingdom was in the 7th and 8th century until Catholicism took over in the place of Aryanism. The Popes in Rome feared the Lombard’s would take over there power. IN 754,

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The began there conquest of Rome during the 4th and 5th centuries.

Next we have the Vandals a Germanic tribe that began in the Northern Jutland. Byzantine Emperor Justinian I sent forces against them in 533. Even though he was crippled there king was very ruthless. In the year 401 Alaric decided to invade Italy but was defeated. He had such a great number of treaties that many of the plans of the Romans never got off the ground. In 378, they defeated a Roman army at Adrianople and killed the Roman Emperor Valens

In 382, the roman ruler Theodosius made a treaty with the Visigoth. Even though the Ostrogoths were considered to be warriors and barbarians they did loose their kingdom. Constantine I was troubled at this time by the Visgoth but wasn’t seen a big threat till later on in the 4th century.

Out of all of the Frankish rulers Charlemagne was probably the greatest ruler.

In 395 when Theodosius died the Visigoths relinquished their alliance with Rome. They unlike other tribe elected a king that would seem to others not very strong. The Salians were allies with the Romans for a while.

Since the Visigoths were at this time beginning to make their presence known the Vandals turned their interest towards that of Roman North Africa.

Clovis the king Salians invaded Gaul in 486.

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